Description

CAMDEN

TQ2785NW WILLOW ROAD
798-1/28/1723 (South side)
14/05/74 Nos.1, 2 AND 3

II*

Terrace of 3 houses, designed to appear as a single building.
1938. By Erno Goldfinger. Reinforced concrete with external
walls faced in red brick. Floors carried on reinforced
concrete columns and on the cylindrical drum from which the
spiral staircase in the centre of the house is cantilevered.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys to front, 4 to rear. Continuous window
opening at 1st floor level; 2nd floor, 7 windows. Ground floor
with recessed entrances and garages; garages of Nos 1 & 3
project to support 1st floor balconies. Entrances with plain
doors and rectangular sidelights. Metal framed casements. 1st
floor window openings in concrete architrave having vertically
set panes providing French windows to the balconies and
continuing as a strip across a secondary opening with concrete
architrave having picture windows alternating with windows of
2 rectangular lights. 2nd floor, 7 rectangular 2-light
casements in concrete architraves standing forward from the
brick surface. Parapet. Rear facade simpler with balcony over
garden.
INTERIOR: No.2 has the largest and most important interior,
surviving with a richness of detailing as continually evolved
by Goldfinger himself, who lived there until his death in
1987, and his artist wife Ursula. Lower floor divided as
separate children's flat. Narrow ground floor with
rubber-floored entrance hall, whence top-lit spiral stair with
slim steel balustrade rises through house. Sculpture by Victor
Passmore from their 'This is Tomorrow' exhibition
collaboration, 1956, at base. First floor with living room
overlooking rear garden with fitted bookcases and furniture,
curved frame surround to formal wall for exhibiting paintings
over fireplace, with study behind. In centre, Goldfinger's
fitted work bench, set over a change in levels, with pairs of
sliding screens to adapt space as artist's studio. Broader
dining room across front, with broad window shelf, fitted
furniture and dining table by Goldfinger. Later kitchenette to
side added mid-late 1960s by Goldfinger. Bedroom floor simpler
but retains much fitted furniture and top-lit bathroom with
cupboards and fittings.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the principal surviving artistic interior
from the 1930s: a collection of modern artifacts and fittings
within a Modern Movement house. It is a demonstration how the

Modern Movement in Britain at the end of the 1930s reasserted
an interest in brick as a facing material. This terrace
replaced an C18 row of cottages in what Goldfinger called "an
adaptation of C18 style", based on a hierarchy of spaces that
follows the Classical divisions; basement, piano nobile and
attic. Goldfinger's own house, No.2, acquired by the National
Trust in 1992.

Listing NGR: TQ2701985839

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• 2 Willow Road at Wikipedia
• 2 Willow Road official website
• Wikidata Q222881

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2